Items tagged with BBC

Last year, the BBC embarked on an ambitious project to help inspire children to code. The BBC’s “Make it Digital” initiative aimed to put one million Micro:bit computers into the hands of Year 7 students (11 and 12 year olds) in the UK for free, and drew on the expertise of software and hardware partners including Microsoft, ARM and Samsung. After the successful rollout of the Micro:bit to UK school children, attention is being turned to the general public. The Micro:bit is now available commercially at a starting price of £13 or around $19, which will get you just the board and nothing else. A...Read more...

Have you ever seen a dog chase its own tail? That pretty much describes what's going on at BBC News this morning. The site suffered a pretty large distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack earlier today, one that knocked out the company's entire network and iPlayer streaming service, causing grief for web visitors who grew impatient with how long it took to restore service. As for the image of a dog chasing its own tail, it's based on BBC's reporting of the situation. The site posted a statement on Twitter in the early morning hours saying it was "aware of a technical issue" affecting its website,...Read more...

Move over Raspberry Pi, there’s a new micro computer in town, and it’s geared [for now] primarily at British schoolchildren. We first brought you news about the Micro:bit in early March as a part of the BBC’s “Make it Digital” campaign. At the time the device was still in the prototype stage, but the device is now being shown to the public in its final production form. The Micro:bit measures just 2-inches by 1.6-inches and is powered by a 32-bit ARM Cortex M0 processor. You’ll also find two push buttons for input, a microUSB connector, Bluetooth connectivity, an accelerometer, a compass, and 25...Read more...

As part of its 'Make it Digital' campaign, the BBC will be giving a staggering 1 million mini DIY PCs, called 'Micro Bit', to year 7 (sixth grade) students across the UK later this year. The goal is to help students become familiar with product development, which will be aided by the launch of coding-based programs at the same time. These Micro Bit PCs are similar in context to the Raspberry Pi, although they are much simpler in design. That being the case, the BBC is not considering it a competitor to existing products, but instead something that might spur kids to want to make the jump to more...Read more...

Apple chief Tim Cook isn't all that happy with a BBC report alleging poor working conditions and the overall mistreatment of workers at its Chinese manufacturing facilities where popular devices like the iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2 are made. The scathing report prompted Apple's Senior Vice President of Operations, Jeff Williams, to send out an email to about 5,000 staff members in the U.K. today saying that he and Cook were "deeply offended" by BBC's accusations.The BBC report alleged a number of work place violations and poor conditions in general, such as employees falling asleep during 12 hours...Read more...

It'd be a little crazy to imagine ending 2013 without another breach-of-security story, so fortunate for us, BBC has come to the last-minute rescue. On December 25th, a Russian hacker is said to have listed a sale on a black market website that offered information about accessing a BBC server, something that US firm Hold Security picked up on and notified the British broadcaster about. Unlike many of the security breaches we unfortunately have to write about, it seems that no sensitive information had been taken from BBC's servers - no credit card numbers, and no user accounts. That's kind of refreshing,...Read more...

On the first day of a new year, many of us reflect on the recent past and hope we do better in the future. Jony Ive, renown Apple designer, probably doesn’t have any angst about his achievements in 2011; he was named a Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE). Although Steve Jobs garners the lion’s share of the credit for much of Apple’s product design, Ive and his eye for industrial design deserves a great deal of acclaim. Products including the iMac, iPhone, and iPad bear his mark. Jobs spoke of Ive as as a "spiritual partner" in a recent biography of himself written...Read more...

It's somewhat hard to believe, but Sony's iconic and downright legendary Walkman turned 30 this year. Three decades ago, Sony's craftsmanship propelled a bulky, one-trick audio player onto the portable scene, sparking a revolution that continues today. But 30 years after its introduction, the original Walkman has little revlence in the world of iPods and other MP3 players. In order to prove such a fact, the BBC decided to give a 13 year old Briton a Walkman cassette player for a week instead of an iPod.The story that ensued is one of the more hilarious that we've seen. Even for an adept teenage...Read more...